In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the doctrine behind the doctrine in the Book of Ephesians Chapter 4. He emphasizes that in order for God's plan to be fulfilled, redemption, justification, and sanctification were necessary. The speaker encourages the audience to reflect on the immense security and grace found in God's love, which can bring comfort and peace in times of difficulty. He also highlights that through God's love, individuals can be transformed and freed from sin, conforming to His will and experiencing spiritual growth.

I thoroughly enjoyed letting myself go in the doctrine that God wants us to know. And if you have been coming regularly, or perhaps you may have heard if you haven't been coming, you will know that we have been, at least I have been, Roger has had his own thing, in the book of Ephesians in chapter four, where I pointed out at the beginning that this is the doctrine behind the doctrine. This is the doctrine that required that the other doctrinal structures should come into being, such as redemption, and justification, and sanctification, and all the other ations and ologies that there are. If God wanted what he sets out in verses four to seven, or six will do, four, five and six, in chapter four, then he had to redeem, he had to justify, he had to sanctify, he had to reconcile, he had to do all the great things if he wanted what these verses say, and of course he did. And then we saw how this doctrine really goes further back still as something even behind that, and that is God himself. And what a marvellous truth it is. And tonight, beloved, not to weary you, if you have been coming regularly, by going over the other points, now, there are six of them, we'll come to this last one in verse six. Perhaps we'll read the four, that there is, from verse four, there is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. And that is our last consideration. Although we did at the beginning put the last first, because there is one God and Father of all, he begot one body, only one body, he never begot two bodies through Mary, even in the physical realm. And in the spiritual realm, one body, and of course one spirit in one body. There is no spirit in any body, it isn't alive, it's dead. And so the whole thing goes on. If there's spirit in any body, then there's hope of that body, that you'll really live. Hope, and how wonderful it all is. And we developed all these things, or the Lord did as we went through, one Lord, who when you come to the one faith, will give you that one great baptism, into that body, by that spirit, and how glorious that is. And so on to the last one. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Lovely, when you remember that verse one, chapter one, says that Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, is writing to the saints, which are Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. He's not writing universally, this great Paul. He's wonderful. He's speaking to those who really are the saints, or the sanctified ones, in that great city, as it was great by comparison with many others then. And to the faithful in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in the second verse, he says this, Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather nice, we're having a letter written to us from our Father, isn't it? Yes. Grace to you from Father. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I'm content to sit down just with that tonight. That would shoot me down to the ground and home to bed. Grace from Father. Hallelujah. And from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful epistle. And I don't know whether you have discovered that the purpose for this epistle is not just to, shall I say, instruct the Church, or to give us some high sight into the wonders of all that the Church has. It's an epistle about the Father. I don't know whether you knew that. Yes. It's a glorious thing. Last night, you know, we were thinking about the Galatian letter, or was it some other time, one morning session, I think. And how we saw that the Galatian epistle is really the epistle which you must read first. If ever you're going to interpret Paul right. And though these epistles are put in the Scripture, they weren't put in their logical doctrinal order. Paul did write this Galatian letter first. I think they're rather scuttled on that. I'm not too sure. But when you read it, you will get the mentality, shall I say, the ability to understand the Roman letter when you read it, unto which it is like. And God wants us to see this. And so we should go on. It's the same. In the blessed Galatian letter, you have the revelation of the Holy Spirit. You will know that. The last half of the letter is taken up with the most full doctrine, if you wish, or revelation of the Spirit, as it were, that there is in the entire Bible in those last three chapters of Galatian. And of course, you will know that the Philippian letter is a revelation of the Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Ephesian letter is about the Father. Dear Father, He loves the Son. He loves Jesus. And so he had the Gospels all filled up with Jesus. Yeah, that's right. That's marvellous. And it's wonderful. He really said very little about himself. But you know, there was one man, and he was suited to it, of course, just the right man. He was utterly determined that there should be one gospel that was all about the Father. At least, Jesus was always talking about the Father in one gospel. You will know what that gospel is, won't you? Yes, I won't need to tell you. And here we find in that gospel that Jesus was always saying something like this. I like to keep repeating this, really. I get great thrill out of it. Not just repeating it, but thinking it. That the Lord Jesus was constantly saying, you know, it isn't me, it's my Father. And I've come to introduce you to the Father. Do you like me? Then you'd like my Father. I wish you knew my Father. My Father is wonderful. That's the way he talked. And he's still saying it today, of course, to poor human beings who come groping for truth and life, to read his word and find out thereby how our tottering steps may be guided into all truth. He said, that's right, I'm the way now. I'm the truth. That's right, Jesus has come. Now, please. Oh, Lord Jesus, I've come to you. Now, don't stop at me. You've got it all wrong, son. Don't stop at me. I'm the way to the Father. You come through me, not to me. Oh, of course, you must come to me first. You see. You come through me. You know that in our language the little word to is in through. There are more adjectives, you know, adjectives in your letters. T-H-R-O, you see, to is in through. You come through the Lord to go through the Lord. Amen. And, of course, you've always noticed this in reading the Roman letter. I'm absolutely sure. There, Paul is very, very... Oh, they asked me downstairs not to walk away from this mic. I apologise to you, brother. All right. So, you will know that Paul, you will know that Paul makes very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the end of the road. You know, we like to read, we like to see, we love to hear Him say, Lord, my life, my way, my end, accept the praise I bring. He's not quite got it right. He wrote up to His life. He is not the end, not Jesus. He is through Jesus. This is His joy. This is what it's about. Through Him to Father. Through Him to Father. Now, that's what it's all about. You know, I want to know whether you are there, whether you are through to Father, or whether you're on the edges of things. It distresses me, because, you know, I've got some very clear ideas, but there it is. If you suffer me to burden you with them for a while, it distresses me if I keep going to church and all I hear is, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I want to hear, Father, Lord, I'm satisfied. They're through. They're through. Jesus is a through person. Let me just give it to you from Romans. You can find it in several other chapters. Let me give you the famous one. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. You say, I see, come to me through Him. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not really. It's I go through Him into eternal life. I've discovered there's been a wrong understanding of so much precious fruit that's kept so many dear people somewhere out there. They're dear, they're lovely, they believe, they're hanging on with all their flaws and with their teeth so that they don't lose anything, because they've never come through. I'm saying, Father, eternal life, sure, is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. You say, well, let's just stop. The mediation business mediates to me and I go up through Him. Yes, it's all lovely. Father, Father. One of His more obscure names, if I may say that, about the Lord Jesus, because we all know He's got ever so many, is this, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. You know where you can read that, don't you? In the Gospel according to Isaiah. That's one of His names. His name should be called Wonderful, Counselor, Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father. Amen. That's one of His, not really so obscure as you read the Bible, but it's something about the Lord Jesus that leaves us in a position of understanding the great blending of truths. Hallelujah. So that I can come to God and I can call Him the Lord. And I can go to Jesus and I say, Lord, as well. Hallelujah. And I can call the Holy Ghost, Lord, Lord God, the Spirit. Amen. It's wonderful. You see, it's because they're of one nature and somehow they must all partake of the same thing. They must all have the same glorious quality about them. Amen. And this is ever so wonderful. Can't you imagine the Lord Jesus in this particular angle? You know, when they bring the Lord, they bring these children to Him, the disciples say, go away. He says, come on. He sits them on His knees, like a great big father. And He says, you suffer the little children to come unto Me. You see, this is the way. In Him, Father came, the Spirit came, of course, to reveal Himself so that He could say, if you've seen Me, this is John again, you've seen the Father. You know where that's found, don't you? Yes, John 14. He said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. He came into the world to display the Father, to make people see His wonderful Father. He was such a glorious Son. He so was identical with Him. He stubbed this to show Himself a true and glorious Son. Now, anybody in this room that isn't like that, you can't really claim to be a son of God. You see, He didn't say, now look here, I'm trying to show you Father. He said, you've seen Me. If you're trying to be like that, then, of course, you're not like that. Because if you are like that, you don't have to try to be like that. I'm like Me. I don't try to be like Me. As a matter of fact, I never alter myself. I don't, sort of, ladies do. They like to alter themselves. I like to iron the creases out. I like to be authoritative. Good men aren't bothered about that. You see, you've seen Me. That's who and what I am. And if I'm trying to be what I am, well, you know what I mean. You would understand I'm three parts crazy. Ah, I mean that. The folly and stupidity that's in the children of God so-called, is alarming. Now, the Lord wants us to understand these great things. This epistle, beloved, is really a revelation of the Father. And, you know, when I was sitting in that chair there, not so blessed, I swallowed a throat sweet quick so that I could sing before I was choked up and thought I'd better keep quiet till the preaching time came in case I had nothing left. And I went along with it and the blessed love of God was there and I thought, Oh, Lord, this is just the atmosphere into which to preach tonight. When the love of God is flowing. Because when you read this Ephesian letter, that is what you discover. It's a love letter from Father. Did you ever discover that? Oh, look here. Blessed be God, I mean in verse 3 of chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, in Christ. That's where the heavenly places are, you know. They're all in Christ. That's why you can live in the heavenly places on earth. Because they're all in Christ. Amen. According, he hath chosen us in him. Now if you're a Calvinist, that's what you go, I nearly said bananas on. He's chosen us in Christ. But nevertheless, we'll press through that. He's chosen us in him before the foundation of God He chose me in heavenly places, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him, in love. There you are. You've only gone four verses and you've arrived at it. That isn't it. Oh. It would be a good idea sometimes, when the pressure's on, when things are almost too great, when they're going hard, without a swelled head and also without hesitation, if you stood up somewhere in your little room and put your arms around yourself and say, Father, you love me. When you've got nobody else to put their arms around you, you can say, Father, you love me. Thank you for loving me, Father. Do you know what God discovered? He discovered there's only one way to get a man or a woman, I talk about God discovered, but you know what I mean, I'm using human language. There's only one way to get a man or a woman out of themselves and out of their sin and out of their love of sin and out of their conformity to the world. There's only one way to do it. And if I said, put your hand up and tell me, you might put your hand up and say, yeah, oh, the blood. Yeah, that's right. But I want to go back, behind the blood, a long way behind the blood. You say, what? That's the foundation of it all. Just don't. The thing by which he gets out of it is he can only love you out of it, don't he? And the blood is nothing other than an expression of love, the extreme expression of love. Hallelujah. You say, where is the cross? The cross is love. So, this is what it's all about. And once we lose this, we've lost everything. That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. But this is something I want to see. Here it is. That in verse 3 it says this, that God and Father, and you notice in verse 2 he talks about God being our Father. All right? Just a great word, it's composite. He's our Father. And then he goes on to say that the God who is our Father, in verse 3, is the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, this is something to notice that we've all got getting to our heart. I saw this so many years ago that God only Fathers people like him. That's all. There's no Father in him. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's not the God and Father of anything, I've put thing in the news agenda, per se, than him. He only Fathers that nature. That's all he Fathers. He doesn't Father any other nature. He doesn't Father the carnal nature. He certainly doesn't Father the sinful nature. Neither does he Father the mere human nature. Do you understand that? He only Fathers that nature which came into the world through Mary. That's what he Fathers. Amen. And if you and I are going to say that God is our Father, we've got to tip right up and see that we have a nature like Jesus Christ. No, not in all its glorious expansiveness. Not in that uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we have to see that same nature, that similarity. It's completely obvious, isn't it? That's all he begets. And oh, how wonderful it is. So you see that in the end, it doesn't lie in me making some brave claim to be this or that, or the other. Although, and here is the mystery of the Gospel, the Blessed Spirit who has come stimulates us to the place where we do come to confession. And where we do move on. And where we do make claims. The tragedy is that when the witness, testimony of the claim far exceeds the nature. Amen. In fact, in some cases, there's no relationship to it. This is why the Lord Jesus, well, let's go into John's Gospel, shall we? I suppose everybody knew that sometimes in this week we get into John's Gospel. Amen. We get into John's Gospel and we read this thing, that verse 14, the famous verse. The Word, John 1, 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The glory as of an only begotten with a Father. It's in the indefinite article in the Greek. The glory as of an only begotten with a Father. Full of grace. and that's, now that's the one, that's the one I'm bearing witness of. This is He whom I bear witness. He that cometh after me, here it is. Alleluia. This is what God is saying. Amen. And that's the only nature He begets, you see. He doesn't beget half-breed. He doesn't beget inners and outers every five minutes. He begets a child in His nature. Amen. Now that's so glorious when it comes to our hearts. Isn't it? I hope it is. That's what He begets. It's this that gives us our shore. This is what He has chosen in Christ. It's this that lives in the heavenly places. It doesn't grub about in the dirt and the filth and the hellish dives. It's in the world but it's not on it. And this is what our God begets. That's what we read in our verse. It's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the God and Father of us all. He's over all. He's through all. He is in you all. Hallelujah. Now, we can go back, or we can go on, into the Acts of the Apostles. Let's see what Paul says here. It's in chapter seventeen. And Paul is standing in the midst of Mars Hill, verse twenty-two. And he says this, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too religious. That's the word. You are too religious. You can be too religious for God. You know that, don't you? I mean, even Christian religion. Far too religious for God. And then, in other people's thoughts, in other words, God gets, lots of people get religion as their own chosen thought, and don't get God. God says this, You are too religious. Speaking through Paul. As I passed by, I beheld your devotion. I found an author with this inscription, to the unknown God. There you are, that was a true confession, wasn't it? Ever so religious, didn't know God. Reminds me of that time, I think I must have told you about it before. And I was travelling in India with my interpreter. And we were speaking, of course, in English. I couldn't speak English. And then we got off at a certain roadside place to drink chai. A man got off a bus with us. By the way, bus travel is not the travel to be commended in India. I'll just tell you that. But still, never mind. We got off this bus, and as we got off, he got off quite close to us, and he said, I was very interested in your conversation in the bus. We were talking about the Lord. Oh, I said, do you know God? He said, no. Nobody can know God. India's a school of gods, you know. God's many. Almost as you have hairs on your head. No, excuse me, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But you know what I mean. Well, in multiplicity and copying, yes, they've got them in their homes, they've got them everywhere, in a lot of homes in India as well as in temples. He said, it's not possible for any man to know God. There you are. God's got religion. Boy, oh boy. He's got religion. Of course, I catch him, but I do know him. And I told him how I could know him, how he could know him, through Christ. Don't know whether he believed it, or whether he had come to know him. But that's the way, darling. To know the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I said, go on. God, that made the world and all things therein, verse 24, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worship with men's hands, though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things and hath made of one blood all nations of men. Actually, the word blood shouldn't be there. One, you can put man if you want. He hath made of one. It's probably better. That's exactly as it is in the original. He hath made of one. Isn't that wonderful? All nations of men. Made them from one man in the beginning. Isn't that great? And that they are to dwell on all the face of the earth. He hath determined the kind before appointed, the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord. Oh, that gives me, that gives me old Joseph Arminius now. That they should seek the Lord. Amen. If haply they might feel after him and find him. Isn't that great? Though he be not far from every one of us. Now listen to this. For in him we live and move and have our being. A certain author of your own poets has said, for we also are his ox. And he's talking of all men. He is above all. Hmm. Our Father above all. Let's go back to Ephesians, shall we? Verse six, chapter four. Our Father is the Father of all our men. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Hallelujah. In this sense, now I know we've got to beware of making everybody think who's living in squalor and sin that God is their Father. He isn't. And yet there is this glorious sense. In his great Godhead, it was God that began it all. He created Adam. And he breathed into Adam the breath of life. And you know, if he'd only created Adam as God the great creator, and had not breathed breath into him, Adam would have been quite useless, yet God would still have created him. There had to be the in-breathing which is always associated with life. There's a sense in which Adam was born as well as created from God. Now you keep that in mind. Don't let it run away with you so it gets into pantheism and universalism. But you can see where a lot of these ideas come from. Amen. He breathed into him, just like he breathed on the day of Pentecost and breathed into men, the Holy Ghost. Not quite the same, of course, but the same idea. And they became spiritually alive. Amen. That's rather different. In fact, that is what we call a rebirth. Born from a birth. Amen. But you know, God still accepts responsibility for his creatures. He still sends the rain and the sun. He still does it. He still provides. He still does. Of course, as you know too, that we are living in a universe which is running down. It's getting old. Hebrews says this. It's his, you know, garment that waxes old. He's got to wind it all up. The whole universe is running down. This is why we've got droughts. This is why we've got all sorts of things. The whole universe isn't up to it anymore. It's failing. No, I believe it's the atom bomb. I believe it's that. It's disturbing all the elements. Well, yes, it may be. But it's all running down. It's just so in Hebrews 1. I wouldn't put it my way, but it's all waxing old. It's all going to go out of sight. And the poor old earth is sagging about on its last legs. Amen. Something like me, you see. That's it. You get the picture? This earth has gone through age upon age upon age and upon age. It's getting old. It's getting old. At least we know there's nothing new under the sun. We're told that in the book. And it's so glorious. You must expect worse things to happen. You must expect that. Even so far as the earth is concerned. In me, you must expect that. Whether men foolishly are hastening it on, I don't know. But that's what they are. They're fools outside of Christ. Amen. To see the whole picture of Jesus. And have you ever thought, when you read through Scripture, you will find that God, though he is the Father, let me show you what I mean in this appeasing letter. When it comes to grave acts of power and so on, it's always associated with the name God. Let's look at it this way. Let's see it quite clearly, shall we? Now, this God is the Father as well. But when we speak of this, look in chapter 2. This is what we read. Verse 4. God, in his wretched mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, he's done so and so and so and so and so. Great acts of power. All right. And when we get down to the last word of verse 8, we read on from there. God, not of birth, as any man could boast, where his workmanship created. There's that side of it. Works of power. Great works of creation. But when you get farther, then we're thinking of God in a different realm of activity altogether. You can't be a father if you haven't got children. Anymore, you could be a mother if you haven't got children. You can't be a father. We're in a different realm. We don't speak of fathers doing great works of power. We speak of them begetting children. That's what we do. It's the same glorious revelation. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Come with me to the Roman letter. The association of truth. When the work of power is talked about, in verse, we can talk about lots of things. Look at verse 11, Romans 6. Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. And so it goes on. Yield yourselves to God. You yield yourselves to God. All in this great realm of power. Hmm. And then we come to the great truth of the fatherhood of God. Amen. Associated with life. He's above us all. And do you know, I don't know whether you have an eye to see it, and I don't know whether you have an ear to hear it. I don't know whether your heart is awake to get it. But it doesn't matter if a man is a Christian or if he isn't. God will come to you through him, if you let him. It doesn't matter what circumstance you get in, you must say, Oh, I can feel the devil coming out of the man at me. God will come through. I'm talking from experience. I've had to deal with devils over and over and over again. Sometime when the devil has been roaring, raiding, ranting, wanting to kill, I found mercy and grace coming through to me. Somehow God overruled everything. So that his children are not got down. So that his children are not defeated. So that his children are not destroyed. It's an amazing thing. And the best way that God ever came to any man or woman was through a cross, through the most awful cruelty, through a dark, dark tomb, through the place of greatest desolation. You see, there goes Mary. What have you done with him? Give him to me, I'll carry him away. He says, Mary. And she says, Oh, Master. There's nothing, beloved. Even death, desolation, darkness. Of course, I'm not asking you to go groveling around to find death and desolation. It's a great job. It's all good looking for it. But God is here. It's what I was talking about the other night, the house of God. Really, I'm on the same feet. If you recall that. It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what circumstances you're in. It doesn't matter. He comes to me for everything. God loves me. Having fathered you into eternal life, He says, you're in heaven if they see you. In Christ, that's right. And who rules in heaven, pray? Does Satan? Or does God? Hallelujah. You see, in situations, time, people can leave their mark on you. Like they have on Jesus. Paul said, don't you trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. But God came through. God came through to him. And He will. He loves you. That's the thing for you to get a hold of. He loves you. Oh Lord, if only this can come into our hearts with understanding. Has it come into your heart? Do you believe that you're His child? And that He's never going to forsake you? And He's never going to leave you? Never? Are you aware of it? Or are you clinging to a text? Is it the convincement of your heart? Does it turn darkness into light? Does it? Amen. Sometimes somebody says, I have to hang on, I have to struggle, I have to strain, I have to do all kinds of things. And when I hear this sort of situation, I think, well, what, what, what? You see? People magnify their situation. They magnify their difficulties. Instead of magnifying the Lord, that's the tragedy. Instead of magnifying the Lord, because they're not aware of God. They're like old Jacob, asleep. He says, oh, I know it was God. I know it was. Asleep. So, sometimes the light surprises the Christian. Sometimes, you see, it is the Lord who rises the ceiling in his ears. That's what God wants us to be in, beloved. That's what he wants us to be in. Oh, thy northward tree, either their wilted fruit shall bear. Oh, fox and herd, everything is bare, yet God the same abides in. His praise shall tune thy voice. While in him confiding, how can I but rejoice? Amen. A child of the Father. Amen. Ah, it's so great. Are you born of the Father? That's what I'm asked. Have you been born from above? And so I go back to John's Gospel. And I read, we've read it already. We beheld his glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a father. I suppose you have wondered many a time, why isn't it in the definite article? But it isn't in the Greek, isn't it? Deliberately the definite article was not put in. How about that? The only begotten of the Father. Amen. What is John suggesting? Already he's suggesting the truth of new birth to people like you and I. An only begotten with a father. So the mind logically goes on to think, oh, that's one only begotten with a father. I wonder if there can be any more. You say, that's it. I wonder if there can be any more. You know? Don't you? You should do anyway. You should come on to the TV and you say, ah, this is wonderful, Lord. And you turn your pages over and sure enough you come to this statement in the second chapter of the Gospel where you read the fulfillment or part fulfillment of that word that Jesus spoke in Luke when his mother and foster father Joseph find him in the temple. And according to Luke, according to our translation, Jesus says, don't you know I must be about my father's business? And we thought the other day, it really says, I must be about the things of my father's house. That's what he said. And this one, like an only begotten with a father, in the next chapter, 3, goes into what was considered to be father's house. Got to be about the things of his father's house. That is, in the temple. I mean, in the second chapter of John he goes into the temple and he says, clear these things out of my father's house. Verse 16, chapter 2. Clear out of my father's house. I'm not having this in my father's house. Wonderful, isn't it? And they thought, ooh, the dream of thine house has eaten me up. That's the sort of verse that came to their mind. It's a marvellous thing, you know, how people sit in the meeting and suddenly get a verse comes to their mind and they think they've got a message from God. They were quite wrong, of course. But it was a work of the Bible. This is what we suffer in so-called Pentecostal charismatic when everybody's free to say what verse comes into their head. They were wrong. That wasn't what he was talking about at all when he said, destroy this temple and so on and so on and so on. There's that which is carnal, and a carnal mind will, quote, choice verses of the Scripture and give them out. And say, ooh, the word came through from God. All the other carnal minds accept it. And they do build themselves up into something on that. Just like stones in a temple. They were utterly wrong. Listen, but this is true. This is the Bible. Amen. You destroy this temple, he said. And three days I'll raise it up again. And they saw him doing all this and doing all that. But you see, what I want you to once point out to is that he went, he said, I'm going to be about to see my Father's house. In the Father's house he goes, he says, I'm not having this in here. I'm not having this in here. I'm not having that. That's got to go. I won't have it. This is Father's house. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So, having said this, he's not surprised to get to the third chapter and he finds himself saying, you've got to be born from above. It's all logical. It's all logical. You've got to be born from above, he says. And he'll do that. Isn't that wonderful? He's unfolding the great truth of this life from Father. Right before everybody's eyes. Right in their ears. If only they had eyes to see it and ears to hear it. Have you heard that? You've got to be born from above. It's got to be absolutely from above. It's got to have nothing of this earth in it at all. Nothing. And insofar as you allow things of earth to intrude, beloved, the things of man, you'll get around it still. Hallelujah. What it is to be born right from above. I know we hear the Gospels. I know we read the Bible, which has come through man's hands anyway. But here is the thing. Oh. How can you explain this? This coming of God. When did it happen to you? When did it happen? That's the important thing. And because this doesn't happen, these people, that's where all the trouble lies. If you get a person that's really born of God, you don't have any more trouble with them. If they get a half-and-a-half kind of Christian thing, you'll have ever so much trouble with them. If they get gifts, you'll have ever such a trouble with these gifts that they offer. Here is the great thing. And I think my heart is constantly up to God about this. Lord, that we should have to live a genuine thing. Hallelujah. With no mixture. Oh, people. I want to tell you, they're straddling along, they say, I believe. You're walking in darkness or something, and you can't see any light. And you hear someone say, oh, when you go through these things, oh, God's with you and all this. And so it should be the norm of life. And so it drags on year after year after year after year. Yeah. It's not right, beloved. It's not true. You should have come through into light. You should have come through into God. You should have come through into joy. You should have come through into purity. You should have come into such a state that you think you can't have contact for. You've got yourself contaminated any more than anything else in this world. That's what should have happened to you. It's a birth. It's a birth. I'm not like a baby that's born under human conditions. It doesn't know anything. Your conditions aren't like that. You are made alive. You can start thinking straight away. You're not like a baby that always goes nuzzling for his milk. You don't revert back to the condition you were in in the womb. Or just when you left it. Everything of your manhood and of your humanity comes alive, touched by the loving hand, moved on with power. All those dead things inside that have lived in the squalor and in the darkness and in the death, they're cleared. They come alive. Understanding grows daily. Light increases. As the Bible says, that the path of the just is as a shining light that increases unto the eternal day. That's what the Bible says. It doesn't say look up. Just ahead now there's a great big tunnel. I remember travelling in Italy. I went on the train through some marvellous scenery. It was in Sicily actually going on to the mainland. And I never knew such a place for railway tunnels. Before you were, of course, it was a marvellous feat of engineering. They bore through tunnels. And you know something out of a tunnel when you're in another one. If you've done this journey, you'll know exactly. I was going from Catania to the mainland. And you're in a tunnel and you come out and you say, look, look, look, and then you're in another tunnel. And you get through that and you say, you just have a chance to look out and you're in another tunnel. And I'm not exaggerating. You go and do it. And there are people like that. They're always in the tunnels. They get a little glimpse and, oh dear, down they are again. They're in the dark again. Now that is not the true Christian it is. You can ask any true Christian, you can consult John Bunyan in prison. Look at the light that man had in prison. Oh. Look at what he wrote. Yeah. Just one person we know about. Because he came into the glorious, genuine light of God. A salvation that leaves me burdened when he says, come to me, I'll lift your burden. An experience that leaves me in half-light, part-light, or most darkness or something. He says, I am the light of the world. You see. That's it. Amen. Something that leaves me in a state where I'm always battling with myself because I want to do the right thing and I can't. That's not the birth of heaven. Amen. It's power. It's life. It's enabling. It is guaranteeing. Amen. Oh. Hallelujah. To be born of God. This is the way he writes for those Ephesians. I think it's absolutely lovely. Listen in verse 16 of chapter 1. He's giving sense. In verse 16 he says, as I'm making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. Amen. When he Fathers anything, he Fathers glory. Amen. It all comes. Has it happened to you? Amen. Amen. Now it must. I'm trained to this. Is your condition a state of glory inside? Is it? Already we've known that we go from glory to glory. That's marvelous. But it doesn't say from glory to shame and out of it into a bit more glory. You go from glory to glory. Do you believe that? Well, if you believe it, are you in it? Amen. This is the real truth, beloved. He's above all. It doesn't mean that, well, he's somewhere out there. He's thrown right above everything. And you get the idea sometimes he's totally unrelated to you and your circumstances. It doesn't mean that. It means above all the prevailing circumstances in your life or in the world, he's above all those in power, in glory, in everything. Hallelujah. See? And so when darkness is there, he's above that. Breaks through that. Darkness is not greater than light. Misery is not greater than joy. Warfare is not greater than peace. Death is not greater than life. It is not. Sin is not greater than righteousness. It isn't. That's the thing for us to get hold of. Amen. He is God. God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in this, and here Paul is joining with John, the verse we've looked at, and only begotten with the Father. In this, God is saying, this is what your life should be. A life of constant deliverance. Of blessings. But it isn't all blessings. Listen. The devil doesn't want you to have one blessing. The devil doesn't want you to have one moment free from inner torment. The devil doesn't want that. But here is God, and he does. And he sent his Son into the world. Here is the sample of it. This is what I beget. Amen. Amen. This is why we have our Bible, beloved. Amen. And of course, this great Fatherhood of God, in chapter 4 of Ephesians, comes when you let the Lord be your Lord, this one Lord. And when you have this one faith, and this one baptism, that's how God becomes your Father. It's a great immersion. You're in a life state. That is, you're a human being on earth. And suddenly, you pass into another life. An immersion into it. It's a baptism. It isn't a gradual crawling in on my knee. Making one knee of faith instead of a step of faith. It happens. It happens. Something like in the Old Testament, when the one privileged person in all Israel, greater than the king, greater than anybody else, went once a year, and threw that veil into the holiest of all. See? One minute he was this side of the veil, the next minute he was that side of the veil. And there was nothing but God. Hallelujah. Now the veil is permanently rent, as Hebrew tells us. And we're there, in the presence of God. We live in the presence of God. Sometimes, when circumstances are more conducive, we're more aware of the presence of God. You know, it's when we come into a meeting. Praise His name. But you're to be in it when you get into your home tonight. You're to be there tomorrow. And if you allow Jesus to say, take that out, I'm not having that in my father's house, take that out, that's not going to be in Father's house. You see? He's trying to... You would be aware of it. You would be aware of it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Ah, Father. I'm so glad that this is so true. I go back into the second chapter, and this is what I want to read. Listen. We can... If we had time, which we haven't, we can find this man saying, well, when we were aliens, verse 12 of chapter 2, on the decision, without God, without hope, through Christ Jesus, we may die through the blood of Christ, He is our peace, verse 14. In 15, He abolishes all the law, commandments, everything, made one new man. In 16, He's reconciled us to God and to each other, and the cross. In 17, He's preaching peace to us. Everybody, no matter how far off you are, He preaches peace to you. And then, in verse 18, we read that, through Him, we both, that during the Gentiles, all of us, we have access by one spirit to the Father. The Father is made accessible to us. Amen. I have access by the Father, by Him to the Father, through one spirit. Hallelujah. Now this is why you've got to drink in the Spirit. This is why you've got to be of the same spirit. You must be of the same spirit. If you've got a spirit in you that's always dividing from this one, always dividing from that one, always separating from this one, Hallelujah, Deliverance. What you need is your head knocking on something. You come by one spirit to the Father. That's what you want. You don't want someone to keep crying big tears over you. You want to read the Bible and believe it, and know how horrible you've been. To move together into God. He's the God and Father of us all. Of us all. Hallelujah. What right have you to sit about and stop away, and go here and go somewhere else? What right have you to throw it all back in God's face? Stop making these excuses. God doesn't believe you, and people of Spain don't believe you, and if you sat down and thought it out you wouldn't believe it yourself either, if you read your Bible properly. We have access by one spirit unto the Father, and you don't go to the Father and say, Oh, look what she's done, look what he's done, look at this, I can't stand that. Oh, how pathetic is the human heart that thinks it's a child of God, and has gone sliding right back into their old nature that they've had all their life before, and think they're pleasing God. You've got to have a new nature, and I want to tell you this, friends, that that nature is strong. That nature is tough. That nature goes on. Do you understand? There's no room for toughness here, and if you've got cones, you'd go to the heavenly colophonists and get dealt with. Oh, you don't get any sympathy for cuddling sin and oppositions in your heart, you don't get any sympathy from God for that. Hallelujah. If your feet were pierced with nails and you were crucified with Christ, you wouldn't worry about a cone anyway. The Lord wants us to understand what it is. You go on in his chapter, you get to, I suppose I shall soon have to stop anyway, I can't go on all night, in this great course chapter where we were reading, it says this, that, uh, verse 15, just look at verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we've all got to grow up into Him. Grow up into Him. And you know what some people really need telling them? Grow up, man. Grow up, woman. Oh, that's an unkind thing to say when I'm so hurt, or something like that. Grow up. Really grow up, beloved. Will you grow up? Hallelujah. You know, it's absolutely true that when you grow up, things change, don't they? You know, I'll tell you, when I was a little kid, you know, I was a little kid once, I used to fall over, in fact, I had an aunt that used to call me Watney's. You see, we were born in London, and they used to advertise Watney's beer in London. Who else was born in London? You were, right. Watney's, it used to be up on the hoarding. And you know why they called me Watney's? It wasn't because I drank beer. It was because I was always falling over. And I used to have my knees tied up with bandages and masks. Oh, Watney's. And boy, I used to make a fuss. She was a wit, wasn't she? And, yeah, she called me Watney's. All right. And boy, I used to, I used to go, oh, I've got knees. Oh, I've got bad knees, you see. But when I fall over now, I've grown up, I don't make a fuss. I, I don't, I, I, I'm nearly grown up, honestly. But look, I've grown up in my mentality, too. Grow up. Can't keep bandaging your knees up with something. I used to sometimes think when my aunt spoke to me that they were almost like baddies. That's it. You see, that's childishness. And I should think, Father, sped up with all this childishness. Wouldn't you? Grow up. Stop taking offense. But they wronged me. Well, all right. They did wrong you. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? Oh, they've all wronged me, Father. Boo, boo, boo, boo. You get on that cross, son. Get on that cross. That's the trouble you'll try and find because you've never got on the cross. You've got to grow up, man. Grow up, woman. That's what it's about. You've had access to the Father. Don't ask me to pray for you. Oh, that's terrible. I mean, we like Him to pray for us. Grow up. You've got access to the Father, man. Woman. Grow in yourself. And if you don't, it's because you can't. Because through Him, we have access to the Father. Only by one spirit soul. That's all. I think this is marvelous. I really do, and I hope you do. Is God your Father? Is He your Father? Really? And you know, in this third chapter, I'll try and be through by ten o'clock. Then we'll all kiss one another goodbye and go home. Please don't anybody hold me up. I'll take your kisses for granted. What I mean is this, that my host and hostess have got to run, send me home, and then go on to another meeting. Something else has got to be done tonight. So, I'm not blaming them. I'm only telling you not to hold them up by holding me up. Because they won't go without me. It's true. Listen. You get this truth in your heart. Listen. When you think of Father's love, you can think of the immense satiety of grace. And if you do get it right, you'll stop bleating. This is what he said. I'm in chapter three. It started like this in verse thirteen. Now don't you go in your corner and start weeping for me. Verse thirteen. Now don't go, poor, poor, I'm very sorry for poor. He says, I don't want that. I don't want that. This is what he said. I don't want you to faint either. If I had to go through with what Paul's gone through. He's told me I've become a Christian. I have to go through what Paul went through. No, I don't suppose we'll ever be in the cross. Believe me, I'm not being mastered by that. But here's the truth. What this man went through. He said, don't you do that. This is what he said. He said, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Don't you think it's marvelous that the name Jesus should be called upon you? Now are you behaving as though you're Jesus now? Are you behaving? Well you said that. Not for me you said that. Are you behaving worthy of that name? Now you've either got to say yes or no. For the Holy Ghost, if you say you've received it, is telling you yes or no. If you'll only listen to it, you see. No, I think it's marvelous. I sometimes don't know what to say about it really. He named a family. Think of the goodness of Father. Think of his grace. Think of it. Do some thinking of it. Until somewhere deep down inside you melt all away. Father. Turn your heart to Jesus Christ. You want the worship. Do you want to learn the worship? You come this way. Don't learn a new two-step. Jesus. And you don't keep saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus until you've got a gramophone record inside you. Oh, Father. And I'm going to tell you this. If I may use his expression. That which melts your heart will melt his. It's love. You look and you can't see any horizon. This is God. And that's what it's about. Filled unto all the fullness. What is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of what? To know the love of Christ. Which passeth knowledge. That you might be filled with all the fullness of God. You've got to be in a love that passeth all your knowledge. So that as your knowledge begins to develop, the love flows into your understanding. The love comes into you every time. It seems as though another faculty is born in you. Or your grasp is strengthened on this great thing. Filled with all the fullness. Amen. Your Father. What a future. This is Father. Yes. Yes. Hallelujah. Jesus said, I'm only the way, really. And the truth. I'm the life. I'm only the way. Now, you've got to come through me to Father. This is the treasure. People, come to Jesus and stop. If you know what I mean. This will explain your experience to you. You say, well I came to Jesus how many years ago. Nobody's denying that. You say, if you believe on Jesus Christ you'll have eternal life. Yes, of course you will. But what you didn't see is that when you come to Jesus like that, you come to an open gateway. You've gone through it and of course that's where the eternal life is. And you keep going. That's the secret. You keep walking. You explore it. Until you're full. And you, you look and you can't see any horizon. This is God. And that's what it's about. Filled unto all the fullness of, you know, you get the whole idea of it in John 17. Where it says, O Father, now I'm coming to thee. I'm coming to thee. Think of Jesus as going to the Father for you. In our little measure. I know we're small. I know there's nothing very great about us. But we are to go in there. Glory upon glory. That's what it is. You're a child of God. Yes. It's yours by right. You must not let the devil keep you out. And him or her, just a human being. You mustn't let them keep you out. If they are keeping you out, they can only keep you out because of the state of your mind. If you'd been seen to be right, they would never have kept you out. If you'd been right, so shall the Lord take us all on, darling. You sit there now. I ask you to deliberately think of your circumstance in which you're living on the earth. Yet hindrance is through all my way. I aim at thee, but go astray. That's his famous words. That's right. Well, think of the hindrances. Think of your hardships. Think of your children. Think you've all got too much work to do. Think of Terri. If you're an elder, think you can't go on, you'll crack under the weight. If you're an elder's wife, think what you're going to go through trying to support the husband. You can think of all these things. Think of them all. You say, the world. I don't want it. Think of your home that you have to live in. The man you have to live with. The woman you have to live with. The work you have to do. Think of your home that gets you down from the morning. You get up in the morning and you're tired all day long. You can't sleep when you go to bed at night. Think of it all. I invite you to. Think of your hardships. Think that you've been out of work perhaps for twelve months. Think of it all. That's right. Gather all the blackness and darkness you can together. Go on. Have a good go at it. Gather it all in. Gather it all in and say, now I'm going to get depressed under it. That's right. That's right. Go on. And do the devil's work against your own soul. And say. I'm more than a conqueror. The Bible says. That's a man talking. I'm more than a conqueror. He loves me. He loves me. Amen. Glory be to God. Yeah. He loves me. The voice of what leads in all this. Look at this. Look at that. Look at the other one. That's right. And you say. He loves me. You say. Is it sort of a mental thing that you do with yourself? Oh no. I'm only trying to take you down into the slough of this pond. That's all I'm seeking to do. Because it's all true. And if you will have the instantaneous spirit. Then you'll have instantaneous victory in deliverance. That's right. And you might even be found pleading for some more of the old darkness. So that you can get through it. You might. It seems like these old apostles did. You know. The more they got flogged. The more they went and got flogged again. The more they were in trouble. The more trouble they got into. Didn't they? This is the miracle and the mystery of redemption. You've got a Father. A God that's over all. He's above all. He's through all. He's in us all. Amen. Do you believe that? You will do if you've had this one baptism. If you've had this baptism you'll believe that. But you'll struggle to try and believe it if you haven't. Like a good, dutiful believer. The Lord wants us through in His great love. Now why don't you quit everything else? Not done your much good heavy. Move into the Lord. All right. I never said sorry. Let's pray. Fresh of course. Go on you pray. What I mean is you talk to God. You tell Him the truth. If you say Lord I've been drowning about in misery and I don't know what for long enough. Amen. Come right out of it. Oh Lord. Come on out of it. Amen. Glory to God. It's amazing. In a moment of time He can do it. Hallelujah. Amen. Yes He can. Yes He can. Bless the Lord. Amen.